Clay Myers welcomes PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship to The Park

KOHLER, WI - MAY 05: Clay Myers, PGA, on the first hole tee box during round one of the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship at Whistling Straits on Monday, May 5, 2025 in Kohler, Wisconsin. (Photo by Ryan Lochhead/PGA of America)

Myers has been a PGA WORKS Ambassador for the PGA of America for five years. He was at last year’s championship at Whistling Straits and had a role in the tournament coming to The Park. The championship runs Monday through Wednesday and is open to spectators.

“I was there last year when they started talking about coming here,” Myers said. “I thought it was a great idea.”

The mission of this tournament, which was created in 1986 as the PGA Minority Championship, is to highlight competitive golf programs at the most underserved and underrepresented minority-serving institutions in the country, as well as educate and inspire student-athletes to pursue career opportunities in the business of golf and beyond.

The late Bill Cioffoletti, speaking during the welcome dinner of the 2015 PGA Golf Management Jones Cup, was the GM at PGA Golf Club when Clay Myers competed in the 2011 PWCC.

Playing the 54-hole PWCC at The Park seems fitting. The former West Palm Beach Country Club, which was dormant for four years, was renamed The Park because club officials wanted it to sound inviting to the community.

Also, former PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh led the effort to re-open the club by raising more than $40 million from local golf enthusiasts. The Park was designed by architect Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner and has received positive reviews.

"We're proud to have The Park hosting the PGA WORKS," Waugh said. "This stands for everything we're trying to do. We're trying to make golf look like the rest of the world. The Park has become a special course, but more importantly a very special place. It's become part of the area."

PGA WORKS homecoming for Palm Beach County golfers

Hope Hall, teeing off at the ANNIKA More Than Golf Invitational in March 2025, is a senior at Dartmouth and St. Andrew's graduate who's competing in the PGA WORKS tourney.

The PGA WORKS also will be a homecoming for five area players in the field. Sisters Hope Hall and Alana Hall, who attended St. Andrew’s in Boca Raton, will be competing in the women’s individual division.

Hope is a senior at Dartmouth and Alana is a sophomore at Lehigh. They started playing golf as motor skills therapy because they were born prematurely, each under two pounds, and spent their earliest days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Therapists encouraged activities that would strengthen fine‑motor skills and support developmental progress. Their dad placed plastic golf clubs in their hands, and they have played since. They credit golf in shaping their physical development, critical thinking and communication skills.

Also in the field are Carolin Alblas and Nashawn Tyson of Florida Atlantic University and Nathan Wong of Palm Beach State College.

North Carolina A&T State University women’s team and Texas A&M International University men’s team will return to defend their titles.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Clay Myers goes from competitor to ambassador for PGA WORKS